Want to make history? How about a trip to Nebraska? Sounds tempting to some people, but not for Royals reliever (and Jersey native) Vin Mazzaro.
Vinny came in to eat some innings for starter, Kyle Davies, who was getting spanked by the resurging Cleveland Indians. He pitched a 1-2-3 3rd inning so they brought him back out for the 4th.
He had given up a run in the inning and there were still 2 guys on, but hey..at least there was 2 outs.....right?
A walk, 6 hits, a home run and 9 runs later, Vinny Maz escaped out of the inning. You'd think that the manager had seen enough...right?
Not quite.
He only made it through another third of an inning after giving up 4 more runs totaling 14...yeah..14! earned runs in 2 1/3 innings. Mazzaro became the first reliever since Buster McCrabb in 1942 (can't make that name up) to accomplish such a feat. After a brutal outing, Vinny was sent packing back to AAA Omaha in the minor leagues!
There is hope for Vinny Maz, however! After McCrabb's debacle, he did make it back to the majors..8 years later! He gave up 7 hits in the next inning he pitched. His next and final outing was a scoreless third of an inning. After that, he retired on top and became a mushroom farmer in Pennsylvania.
Hopefully things work out a little bit better for Mazzaro or you'll be seeing a new Pizza place opening in his hometown of Hackensack.
